The surname Denys was borne by at least three prominent mediaeval families seated in
Gloucestershire
Gloucestershire ( abbreviated Glos) is a county in South West England. The county comprises part of the Cotswold Hills, part of the flat fertile valley of the River Severn and the entire Forest of Dean.
The county town is the city of Gl ...
,
Somerset
( en, All The People of Somerset)
, locator_map =
, coordinates =
, region = South West England
, established_date = Ancient
, established_by =
, preceded_by =
, origin =
, lord_lieutenant_office =Lord Lieutenant of Somerset
, lord_ ...
and
Devon
Devon ( , historically known as Devonshire , ) is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in South West England. The most populous settlement in Devon is the city of Plymouth, followed by Devon's county town, the city of Exeter. Devon is ...
in southwest England between 1166 and 1641. It is not known if any relationship existed between these families. The surname ''Denys'' is just one of many variant spellings of the name: ''Denise'', ''Le Deneis'', ''Le Danies'', ''le Deneys'' ,and most recently ''Dennis'', are some of the others.
The family of Denys was apparently of Danish origin, and was recorded in early Norman charters in French as ''le Deneys'', meaning "The Dane", which was frequently
Latinised by scribes as Dacus, being the adjectival form of ''
Dacia
Dacia (, ; ) was the land inhabited by the Dacians, its core in Transylvania, stretching to the Danube in the south, the Black Sea in the east, and the Tisza in the west. The Carpathian Mountains were located in the middle of Dacia. It thus r ...
'', the mediaeval Latin for
Denmark
)
, song = ( en, "King Christian stood by the lofty mast")
, song_type = National and royal anthem
, image_map = EU-Denmark.svg
, map_caption =
, subdivision_type = Sovereign state
, subdivision_name = Danish Realm, Kingdom of Denmark
...
, thus "Danish".
Denys of Gloucestershire
![ArmsOfDenysOfSiston](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d7/ArmsOfDenysOfSiston.jpg)
An early and influential west-country family named Denys seems to have originated in Gloucestershire in the 13th century and to have moved into Glamorgan, where it was resident at
Waterton, before moving back to Gloucestershire c. 1380, where it was seated at
Siston
Siston (pronounced "sizeton") is a small village in South Gloucestershire, England. It is east of Bristol at the confluence of the two sources of the Siston Brook, a tributary of the River Avon. The village consists of a number of cottages ...
near Bristol until the late 16th century. This family's arms are the differenced arms of their apparent sometime feudal overlords the Cantilupes, ''three leopard's faces jessant-de-lys''.
Several members of this branch of the family became
High Sheriff of Gloucestershire
This is a list of Sheriffs and High Sheriffs of Gloucestershire, who should not be confused with the Sheriffs of the City of Gloucester.
The High Sheriff is the oldest secular office under the Crown (in England and Wales the office previously kn ...
. The first was
Sir Gilbert Denys (c. 1350 – 1422); others included
Maurice Denys
Sir Maurice Denys (1516–1563) of Siston Court, near Bristol, Gloucestershire, and of St John's Street, Clerkenwell, Middlesex, was an English lawyer and property speculator during the Dissolution of the Monasteries, at which time he se ...
(c. 1410 – 1466),
Sir William Denys (1470–1533) and
Henry Dennis
Henry Dennis (1818–1887) was a nineteenth-century hymnist, who earned worldwide fame for his hymn tune, 'Euphony'.
A Leicestershire farmer, Dennis composed fifty-four anthems and six hymn tunes. Born at Ticknall in Derbyshire, Dennis is said ...
(Feb 1594 – 26 June 1638).
Denys of Somerset
Another possibly related 12th- and 13th-century Denys family held the manor of
Sock Dennis
Sock Dennis is an historic manor in the parish of Ilchester in Somerset, England.
History
In the Domesday Book of 1086 the manor of Sock Dennis was in the possession of Robert, Count of Mortain. From the mid-13th century it was described as a ma ...
near
Ilchester
Ilchester is a village and civil parish, situated on the River Yeo or Ivel, five miles north of Yeovil, in the English county of Somerset. Originally a Roman town, and later a market town, Ilchester has a rich medieval history and was a nota ...
, in Somerset, from the Beauchamp family,
feudal barons of Hatch Beauchamp.
White Hall Hospital in Ilchester was founded in about 1217–1220 by William Dacus/Le Deneis of Sock Dennis, following his gift of a house and other property. During the reigns of Henry II (1154-1189) and Richard I (1189-1199), the
royal forest
A royal forest, occasionally known as a kingswood (), is an area of land with different definitions in England, Wales, Scotland and Ireland. The term ''forest'' in the ordinary modern understanding refers to an area of wooded land; however, the ...
of
Petherton Park
Petherton Park (also known as North Petherton Park or Newton Park) was a Deer park around North Petherton within the English county of Somerset.
The origins are unclear but the area was part of an earlier Royal Forest stretching from the River ...
, near
Bridgwater
Bridgwater is a large historic market town and civil parish in Somerset, England. Its population currently stands at around 41,276 as of 2022. Bridgwater is at the edge of the Somerset Levels, in level and well-wooded country. The town lies alon ...
in Somerset, was
held
Held may refer to:
Places
* Held Glacier
People Arts and media
* Adolph Held (1885–1969), U.S. newspaper editor, banker, labor activist
*Al Held (1928–2005), U.S. abstract expressionist painter.
*Alexander Held (born 1958), German television ...
from the crown by Osbert and William Dacus by
grand serjeanty
Under feudalism in France and England during the Middle Ages, tenure by serjeanty () was a form of tenure in return for a specified duty other than standard knight-service.
Etymology
The word comes from the French noun , itself from the Latin , ...
of being the king's Forester of Petherton. The Somerset Denys family seems to have died out soon after in the male line. No trace of their armorials has survived from which to make a link to other families of the same name.
Denys of Devon
![DenysOfOrleighArms](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/97/DenysOfOrleighArms.PNG)
Josceline le Deneys (whose first name was Latinised to ''Jollenus'', ''Jellanus'' or ''Joscelinus'') was recorded in the 1166 ''
Cartae Baronum
In the kingdom of England, a feudal barony or barony by tenure was the highest degree of feudal land tenure, namely ''per baroniam'' (Latin for "by barony"), under which the land-holder owed the service of being one of the king's barons. The ...
'' return submitted by Henry de Pomeroy,
feudal baron
A feudal baron is a vassal holding a heritable fief called a ''barony'', comprising a specific portion of land, granted by an overlord in return for allegiance and service. Following the end of European feudalism, feudal baronies have largely been ...
of
Berry Pomeroy
Berry Pomeroy is a village and civil parish in the South Hams district of Devon, England, east of the town of Totnes. The parish is surrounded clockwise from the north by the parishes of Ipplepen, Marldon, Torbay (unitary authority), Stoke Gab ...
in South Devon, as holding from him the manor of
Pancrasweek
Pancrasweek is a civil parish and hamlet in the far west of Devon, England forming part of the local government district of Torridge and lying about three miles north west of the town of Holsworthy.Ordnance Survey mapping
It is bordered clockwi ...
,
Black Torrington
Black Torrington is a village and civil parish in mid Devon, England, situated between the towns of Holsworthy and Hatherleigh. It is located on and named after the River Torridge.
Within the village is a small but well maintained 15th-centu ...
hundred
100 or one hundred (Roman numeral: C) is the natural number following 99 and preceding 101.
In medieval contexts, it may be described as the short hundred or five score in order to differentiate the English and Germanic use of "hundred" to de ...
, North Devon, and de Pomeroy himself held it from Tavistock Abbey. This ''Jollenus Dacus'' held Pancrasweek as one
knight's fee
In feudal Anglo-Norman England and Ireland, a knight's fee was a unit measure of land deemed sufficient to support a knight. Of necessity, it would not only provide sustenance for himself, his family, and servants, but also the means to furnish him ...
on military
feudal tenure.
Orleigh
Orleigh Court is a late medieval manor house in the parish of Buckland Brewer about 4 miles (6.4 km) south-west of Bideford, North Devon, England. It is a two-storeyed building constructed from local slate stone and has a great hall with a hammer- ...
formed a
sub-manor of Pancrasweek, but was held by him under the non-military tenure of free
socage
Socage () was one of the feudal duties and land tenure forms in the Feudalism, English feudal system. It eventually evolved into the freehold tenure called "free and common socage", which did not involve feudal duties. Farmers held land in excha ...
, that is to say it was a heritable estate the service for which was monetary not military.
Dacus held two fees in total from de Pomeroy, as stated in his 1166 return, and the identity of these fees are revealed in the record of the holdings of his descendant Robert le Deneys in the feudal aid of 1285 which shows Pancrasweek forming one, Southwick in Germansweek and Manaton (14 miles north of
Berry Pomeroy Castle
Berry Pomeroy Castle, a Tudor mansion within the walls of an earlier castle, is near the village of Berry Pomeroy, in South Devon, England. It was built in the late 15th century by the Pomeroy family which had held the land since the 11th centur ...
) forming a half each. In 1285 however Robert le Deneys was holding these manors not from the de Pomeroy barons but from the heirs of Patrick de Chaworth, who was successor in title to Brewer,
lord of the manor
Lord of the Manor is a title that, in Anglo-Saxon England, referred to the landholder of a rural estate. The lord enjoyed manorial rights (the rights to establish and occupy a residence, known as the manor house and demesne) as well as seig ...
of
Buckland Brewer
Buckland Brewer is a village and civil parish in the Torridge district of Devon, England, 4.7 miles south of Bideford. Historically the parish formed part of Shebbear Hundred. According to the 2001 census it had a population of 777, increasin ...
amongst others, who had himself purchased them from de Pomeroy.
The arms adopted by the Devon family of this name at the start of the age of
heraldry
Heraldry is a discipline relating to the design, display and study of armorial bearings (known as armory), as well as related disciplines, such as vexillology, together with the study of ceremony, rank and pedigree. Armory, the best-known branch ...
in about 1200 reflected their supposed origins: ''Azure, three Danish battle axes or'', that is three golden axes on a blue background. A history of this family is contained in the Duchess of Cleveland's "
Battle Abbey Roll
The Battle Abbey Roll is a commemorative list, lost since at least the 16th century, of the companions of William the Conqueror, which had been erected or affixed as a memorial within Battle Abbey, Hastings, founded ''ex-voto'' by Duke William o ...
", under "Denise".
![ArmsOfDenysOfBicton](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/9b/ArmsOfDenysOfBicton.PNG)
A cadet branch of Dennis of Orleigh settled at
Holcombe Burnell
Holcombe Burnell is a civil parish in Devon, England, the church of which is about 4 miles west of Exeter City centre. There is no village clustered around the church, rather the nearest village within the parish is Longdown. Only the manor hou ...
, 3 miles west of Exeter, and
Bicton, 10 miles SE of that city, and bore the arms of Orleigh
differenced: ''Ermine, three Danish battle axes gules'' (three red battle-axes on a white background with black ermine spots).
Robert le Deneys gave Orleigh to his younger son William, whose son John le Deneys was in possession in 1342 Richard Denys (died 1442), John's grandson, married Elizabeth Bowhay, daughter and heiress of Geoffrey Bowhay of Bowhay. In 1417 Orleigh was occupied by his wife's cousin, also called Elizabeth Bowhay, the daughter of John Bowhay and widow of Thomas Crydia. She was granted in 1417 by
Edmund Stafford
Edmund Stafford (1344 – 3 September 1419) was Bishop of Exeter from 1395 to his death in 1419.
Origins
He was the second son of Sir Richard Stafford (born post 1301-d.1381) "of Clifton Campville" in Staffordshire (the second son ...
(died 1419),
Bishop of Exeter
The Bishop of Exeter is the ordinary of the Church of England Diocese of Exeter in the Province of Canterbury. Since 30 April 2014 the ordinary has been Robert Atwell. , licence to have mass performed in her oratory at Orleigh.
Three generations of Denys's each named John followed Richard Denys, the last of whom, John Denys (died 1498) married Eleanor Gifford, daughter and co-heiress of Stephen Gifford of Theoborough. His son was William Denys (born 1472), who was followed by his son Nicholas and the latter's son John Denys (died 1584) who married Dorothy Monk, daughter and co-heiress of Anthony Monk of
Potheridge
Potheridge (''alias'' Great Potheridge, Poderigge, Poderidge or Powdrich) is a former Domesday Book estate in the parish of Merton, in the historic hundred of Shebbear, 3 miles south-east of Great Torrington, Devon, England. It is the site ...
. John settled the reversion of his manor of Farley in
Petrockstowe
Petrockstowe (or Petrockstow) is a small village and civil parish in the district of Torridge in Northern Devon, England. Its population in 2001 was 379, hardly different from the figure of 385 recorded in 1901. The southern boundary of the pa ...
onto the issue of his son William Denys (died 1605) in 1573 on the occasion of his marriage to Mary Vyell, daughter of William Vyell of Trevorder. William contributed £25 to the defences against the
Spanish Armada
The Spanish Armada (a.k.a. the Enterprise of England, es, Grande y Felicísima Armada, links=no, lit=Great and Most Fortunate Navy) was a Spanish fleet that sailed from Lisbon in late May 1588, commanded by the Duke of Medina Sidonia, an aris ...
in 1588. He died intestate. His son was Anthony Dennis (1585–1641), the last of the male line, whose monument can be seen in Buckland Brewer Church.
The heir of Denys of Holcombe Burnel and Bicton was the Rolle family of
Stevenstone
Stevenstone is a former manor within the parish of St Giles in the Wood, near Great Torrington
Great Torrington (often abbreviated to Torrington, though the villages of Little Torrington and Black Torrington are situated in the same r ...
, which in the person of
John Rolle, 1st Baron Rolle
John Rolle, 1st Baron Rolle (1750 – 3 April 1842) was a British peer who served as a Member of Parliament in general support of William Pitt the Younger and was later an active member of the House of Lords. His violent attacks on Edmun ...
(died 1842), seated at
Bicton House
Bicton House, or Bickton House, is a late 18th- or early 19th-century country house, which stands on the campus of Bicton College, Bicton, near Exmouth, East Devon. It is a Grade II* listed building. The park and gardens are Grade I listed i ...
, was the largest landowner in Devon possessing some 55,000 acres, now represented by
Baron Clinton
Baron Clinton is a title in the Peerage of England. Created in 1298 for Sir John de Clinton, it is the seventh-oldest barony in England.
Creation and early history
The title was granted in 1298 to Sir John de Clinton, a knight who had served ...
.
Anthony Dennis (1585–1641)
Anthony Dennis of Orleigh married twice:
*Firstly to Elizabeth Wise, daughter of Thomas Wise of Sydenham. She bore him a son William (born 1611) and two daughters.
*Secondly to Gertrude Grenville, daughter of Sir Bernard Grenville,
lord of the manor
Lord of the Manor is a title that, in Anglo-Saxon England, referred to the landholder of a rural estate. The lord enjoyed manorial rights (the rights to establish and occupy a residence, known as the manor house and demesne) as well as seig ...
of Stowe, in
Kilkhampton
Kilkhampton ( kw, Kylgh) is a village and civil parishes in England, civil parish in northeast Cornwall, England, United Kingdom.
The village is on the A39 road#Atlantic Highway, A39 about four miles (6 km) north-northeast of Bude.
Kilk ...
parish, Cornwall and of
Bideford
Bideford ( ) is a historic port town on the estuary of the River Torridge in north Devon, south-west England. It is the main town of the Torridge local government district.
Toponymy
In ancient records Bideford is recorded as ''Bedeford'', ''By ...
, the seaport 4 miles north of Orleigh. Sir Bernard was the son of the renowned Sir
Richard Grenville
Sir Richard Grenville (15 June 1542 – 10 September 1591), also spelt Greynvile, Greeneville, and Greenfield, was an English privateer and explorer. Grenville was lord of the manors of Stowe, Cornwall and Bideford, Devon. He subsequently ...
(1542–1591), Captain of "
The Revenge" which was lost heroically fighting the Spaniards in the Azores, and the father of the renowned Sir
Bevil Grenville
Sir Bevil Grenville (23 March 1596 - 5 July 1643) was an English landowner and soldier who sat as a Member of Parliament for various constituencies between 1620 to 1642, although during those years there were few parliamentary sessions. When t ...
(1596–1643) killed in heroic circumstances at the
Battle of Lansdowne
The First English Civil War battle of Lansdowne, or Lansdown, was fought on 5 July 1643, at Lansdowne Hill, near Bath, Somerset, England. Although the Royalists under Lord Hopton forced the Parliamentarians under Sir William Waller to re ...
leading Cornishmen, memorialized by
Sir Bevil Grenville's Monument
Sir Bevil Grenville's Monument is a monument erected in 1720 on Lansdown Hill, then called Lansdowne Hill, in Charlcombe parish about north-west of the city of Bath, in Somerset, England. It was designated a Grade II* listed structure in 1956 ...
on Lansdowne Hill near Bath. Gertrude bore him eight children, of whom only three infant daughters, aged between 8 and 14, survived their father as co-heiresses:
**Mary Dennis, the eldest, married Sir
Thomas Hampson
Thomas Walter Hampson (born June 28, 1955) is an American lyric baritone, a classical singer who has appeared world-wide in major opera houses and concert halls and made over 170 musical recordings.
Hampson's operatic repertoire spans a range ...
, 2nd. Baronet (died 1670), of
Taplow
Taplow is a village and civil parish in the Unitary Authority of Buckinghamshire, England. It sits on the left bank of the River Thames, facing Maidenhead in the neighbouring county of Berkshire, with Cippenham and Burnham to the east. It is th ...
, Buckinghamshire.
**Elizabeth Dennis (died 1664), married twice, firstly in 1643 to John Hern and secondly to William Alston of
Strixton, Northamptonshire. A slab exists on the floor of the Orleigh Chapel showing the arms of Alston
impaling
Impalement, as a method of torture and execution, is the penetration of a human by an object such as a stake, pole, spear, or hook, often by the complete or partial perforation of the torso. It was particularly used in response to "crimes aga ...
Dennis, inscribed thus: "In memory of Elizabeth Alston, daughter of Anthony Dennis of Orleigh Esqr., the wife of William Alston of Strixton in the county of Northampton, Esqr., who in sure and certain assurance of a (?) life departed ye 4th of June 1664".
[Rogers (1938), p.28]
**Gertrude Dennis, the youngest, married in 1664 Nicholas Glynne of Glynne in Cornwall.
In 1661 the three sisters conveyed jointly the manor of Orleigh to
feoffee
Under the feudal system in England, a feoffee () is a trustee who holds a fief (or "fee"), that is to say an estate in land, for the use of a beneficial owner. The term is more fully stated as a feoffee to uses of the beneficial owner. The use ...
s (i.e. trustees) who sold it in 1684 to the Bideford merchant John Davie (died 1710).
References
{{Reflist
Sources
*Rogers, W. H. (1938), "Buckland Brewer", reprinted 2000, Snetzler, M.F. (Ed.), Barcott, Buckland Brewer
English families